Animated Learning for Transitions - Early Recognition 2.0

Emergent from a previous Erasmus+ action undertaken from 2016-2019, Alt-ER 2.0 represents efforts to make a clear and justified case for ICT and creative strategies to help young people in their learning and development.

The first iteration of the project exposed concerns about the expected efficacy of ICT in education contexts among parents and teachers, and created a Framework to legitimize the use of ICT that embraces creativity and self-directed storytelling. It is exactly this issue though that becomes ever so much more important in the age of Covid, when educational structures may have no choice but to move online, and lack of conviction in them as effective can seriously impede progress and limit success.

The objectives of this iteration of the Alt-ER 2.0 project are to further develop the Framework for wider international contexts, but also to overlay the implications that Covid has and may continue to have on processes employed across Europe. The Toolbox/Platform (which is a collection of activities that present opportunities for creative self-expression) is to be expanded, with the set goal of including a stop motion animation suite. This will take the platform from one that allows participants to make meaning by decoding the scenes presented, into one that allows participants to tell stories, an important shift in the scope and dynamics of the project.

The assembled Analysis/Reporting and Research/Publications packages will create the most up to date knowledge and present it in ways that promote sharing and autonomous dissemination among a wide group of interested parties across Europe.

The project group for Alt-ER 2.0 is made up of a mix of 5 higher education and research institutions and SME’s that work in fields attendant to game based learning, pedagogy, and animation as a tool for learning and self expression and covers Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland, Italy, and Belgium.

Methodologically speaking the group will employ a number of strategies based on participatory action learning/research where groups will work with both the tools and the framework to help determine where it is and is not fully developed as a result of their engagement.

Workshops (in person or online) form the basis of this project work, with practical application and use of the tools and the framework being seen as an excellent way to further develop new concepts and needs in response to Covid, but also to further spread the use of the Alt-Er 2.0 program generally.